1987 年全国硕士研究生入学统一考试英语试题

Section I: Structure and Vocabulary

In each question, decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete

the sentence if inserted at the place marked. Put your choice in the brackets on the

left. (10 points)

EXAMPLE:

I was caught ________ the rain yesterday.

[A] in

[B] by

[C] with

[D] at

ANSWER: [A]

1. The skyscraper stands out ________ the blue sky.

[A] in

[B] against

[C] under

[D] beneath

2. They have always been on good ________ with their next-door neighbors.

[A] friendship

[B] relations

[C] connection

[D] terms

3. Hello! Is that 21035? Please put me ________ to the manager.

[A] across

[B] up

[C] through

[D] over

4. Why do you look so ________? You never smile or look cheerful.

[A] miserable

[B] unfortunate

[C] sorry

[D] rude

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5. Eggs, though nourishing, have ________ of fat content.

[A] large number

[B] a large number

[C] the high amount

[D] a high amount

6. Jim always ________ his classmates in a debate.

[A] backs out

[B] backs away

[C] backs up

[D] backs down

7. Most of the people who ________ two world wars are strongly against arms

race.

[A] have lived out

[B] have lived through

[C] have lived on

[D] have lived off

8. There are many inconveniences that have to be ________ when you are

camping.

[A] put up

[B] put up with

[C] put off

[D] put away

9. Is it true that those old houses are being pulled down ________ new office

blocks?

[A] to accommodate

[B] to provide for

[C] to increase

[D] to make room for

10. Being in no great hurry, ________.

[A] we went the long route with scenery

[B] the long, scenic route was our preference

[C] we took the long scenic route

[D] our preference was taking the long, scenic route

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Section II: Reading Comprehension

Each of three passages below is followed by five questions. For each question there

are four answers, read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each of

the question. Put your choice in the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points)

Text 1

For centuries men dreamed of achieving vertical flight. In 400 A.D. Chinese

children played with a fan-like toy that spun upwards and fell back to earth as

rotation ceased. Leonardo da Vinci conceive the first mechanical apparatus, called a

“Helix,” which could carry man straight up, but was only a design and was never

tested.

The ancient-dream was finally realized in 1940 when a Russian engineer piloted

a strange looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly

and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground,

went sideways and backwards, and then settled back to earth. The vehicle was called

a helicopter.

Imaginations were fired. Men dreamed of going to work in their own personal

helicopters. People anticipate that vertical flight transports would carry millions of

passengers as do the airliners of today. Such fantastic expectations were not fulfilled.

The helicopter has now become an extremely useful machine. It excels in

military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other

aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as airborne offices, many metropolitan

areas use them in police work, construction and logging companies employ them in

various advantageous ways, engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and

oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations

accessible to crews and supplies. Any urgent mission to a hard-to-get-to place is a

likely task for a helicopter. Among their other multitude of used: deliver people

across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for

missing or wanted persons.

11. People expect that ________.

[A] the airliners of today would eventually be replaced by helicopters

[B] helicopters would someday be able to transport large number of people

from place to place as airliners are now doing

[C] the imaginations fired by the Russian engineer’s invention would become a

reality in the future

[D] their fantastic expectations about helicopters could be fulfilled by airliners

of today

12. Helicopters work with the aid of ________.

[A] a combination of rotating devices in front and on top

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[B] a rotating device topside

[C] one rotating fan in the center of the aircraft and others at each end

[D] a rotating fan underneath for lifting

13. What is said about the development of the helicopter?

[A] Helicopters have only been worked on by man since 1940.

[B] Chinese children were the first to achieve flight in helicopters.

[C] Helicopters were considered more dangerous than the early airplanes.

[D] Some people thought they would become widely used by average

individuals.

14. How has the use of helicopters developed?

[A] They have been widely used for various purposes.

[B] They are taking the place of high-flying jets.

[C] They are used for rescue work.

[D] They are now used exclusively for commercial projects.

15. Under what conditions are helicopters found to be absolutely essential?

[A] For overseas passenger transportation.

[B] For extremely high altitude flights.

[C] For high-speed transportation.

[D] For urgent mission to places inaccessible to other kinds of craft.

Text 2

In ancient Greece athletic festivals were very important and had strong religious

associations. The Olympian athletic festival held every four years in honor of Zeus,

king of the Olympian Gods, eventually lost its local character, became first a

national event and then, after the rules against foreign competitors had been

abolished, international. No one knows exactly how far back the Olympic Games go,

but some official records date from 776 B.C. The games took place in August on the

plain by Mount Olympus. Many thousands of spectators gathered from all parts of

Greece, but no married woman was admitted even as a spectator. Slaves, women and

dishonored persons were not allowed to compete. The exact sequence of events

uncertain, but events included boy’s gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, horse racing and

field events, though there were fewer sports involved than in the modern Olympic

Games.

On the last day of the Games, all the winners were honored by having a ring of

holy olive leaves placed on their heads. So great was the honor that the winner of the

foot race gave his name to the year of his victory. Although Olympic winners

received no prize money, they were, in fact, richly rewarded by their state authorities.

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How their results compared with modern standards, we unfortunately have no means

of telling.

After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years, the Games were

suspended by the Romans in 394 A.D. They continued for such a long time because

people believed in the philosophy behind the Olympics: the idea that a healthy body

produced a healthy mind, and that the spirit of competition in sports and games was

preferable to the competition that caused wars. It was over 1,500 years before

another such international athletic gathering took place in Athens in 1896.

Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country

provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living

accommodation, but competing courtiers pay their own athletes’ expenses.

The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount

Olympus by the sun’s rays. It is carried by a succession of runners to the stadium.

The torch symbolized the continuation of the ancient Greek athletic ideals, and it

burns throughout the Games until the closing ceremony. The well-known Olympic

flag, however, is a modern conception: the five interlocking rings symbolize the

uniting of all five continents participating in the Games.

16. In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games ________.

[A] were merely national athletic festivals

[B] were in the nature of a national event with a strong religious colour

[C] had rules which put foreign participants in a disadvantageous position

[D] were primarily national events with few foreign participants

17. In the early days of ancient Olympic Games ________.

[A] only male Greek athletes were allowed to participate in the games

[B] all Greeks, irrespective of sex, religion or social status, were allowed to take

part

[C] all Greeks, with the exception of women, were allowed to compete in

Games

[D] all male Greeks were qualified to compete in the Games

18. The order of athletic events at the ancient Olympics ________.

[A] has not definitely been established

[B] varied according to the number of foreign competitors

[C] was decided by Zeus, in whose honor the Games were held

[D] was considered unimportant

19. Modern athletes’ results cannot be compared with those of ancient runners

because ________.

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[A] the Greeks had no means of recording the results

[B] they are much better

[C] details such as the time were not recorded in the past

[D] they are much worse

20. Nowadays, the athletes’ expenses are paid for ________.

[A] out of the prize money of the winners

[B] out of the funds raised by the competing nations

[C] by the athletes themselves

[D] by contributions

Text 3

In science the meaning of the word “explain” suffers with civilization’s every

step in search of reality. Science cannot really explain electricity, magnetism, and

gravitation; their effects can be measured and predicted, but of their nature no more

is known to the modern scientist than to Thales who first looked into the nature of

the electrification of amber, a hard yellowish-brown gum. Most contemporary

physicists reject the notion that man can ever discover what these mysterious forces

“really” are. “Electricity,” Bertrand Russell says, “is not a thing, like St. Paul’s

Cathedral; it is a way in which things behave. When we have told how things behave

when they are electrified, and under what circumstances they are electrified, we have

told all there is to tell.” Until recently scientists would have disapproved of such an

idea. Aristotle, for example, whose natural science dominated Western thought for

two thousand years, believed that man could arrive at an understanding of reality by

reasoning from self-evident principles. He felt, for example, that it is a self-evident

principle that everything in the universe has its proper place, hence one can deduce

that objects fall to the ground because that’s where they belong, and smoke goes up

because that’s where it belongs. The goal of Aristotelian science was to explain why

things happen. Modern science was born when Galileo began trying to explain how

things happen and thus originated the method of controlled experiment which now

forms the basis of scientific investigation.

21. The aim of controlled scientific experiments is ________.

[A] to explain why things happen

[B] to explain how things happen

[C] to describe self-evident principles

[D] to support Aristotelian science

22. What principles most influenced scientific thought for two thousand years?

[A] the speculations of Thales

[B] the forces of electricity, magnetism, and gravity

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[C] Aristotle’s natural science

[D] Galileo’s discoveries

23. Bertrand Russell’s notion about electricity is ________.

[A] disapproved of by most modern scientists

[B] in agreement with Aristotle’s theory of self-evident principles

[C] in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward “how” things

happen

[D] in agreement with scientific investigation directed toward “why” things

happen

24. The passage says that until recently scientists disagreed with the idea ________.

[A] that there are mysterious forces in the universe

[B] that man cannot discover what forces “really” are

[C] that there are self-evident principles

[D] that we can discover why things behave as they do

25. Modern science came into being ________.

[A] when the method of controlled experiment was first introduced

[B] when Galileo succeeded in explaining how things happen

[C] when Aristotelian scientist tried to explain why things happen

[D] when scientists were able to acquire an understanding of reality of

reasoning

Section III: Structure and Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks with the words which best complete the sentence. Put your choices

in the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)

EXAMPLE:

It was the largest experiment we have ever had, it ________ six hours.

[A] ended

[B] finished

[C] was

[D] lasted

ANSWER: [D]

26. As scheduled, the communications satellite went into ________ round the earth.

[A] circle

[B] orbit

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[C] path

[D] course

27. When I saw Jane, I stopped and smiled, but she ________ me and walked on.

[A] refused

[B] ignored

[C] denied

[D] missed

28. It was a good game, and at the end the ________ was Argentina 3, West

Germany 2.

[A] mark

[B] account

[C] record

[D] score

29. George took ________ of the fine weather to do a day’s work in his garden.

[A] chance

[B] interest

[C] advantage

[D] charge

30. Is there anyone who ________ the plans put forward by the committee?

[A] differs

[B] opposes

[C] disagrees

[D] refuses

31. All too ________ it was time to go back to school after the summer vacation.

[A] often

[B] quick

[C] fast

[D] soon

32. In an accident when two cars run into each other, they ________.

[A] hit

[B] knock

[C] strike